Interview with David Kucera - Greenbrier Valley Brewing Company

Interview with David Kucera

Greenbrier Valley Brewing Company

How did you come up with your Brewery Name?

We wanted our name to represent the area where the brewery is located. We are very proud of our little valley down here in Southern WV and wanted our name to be representative of this beautiful area of the state. We love the outdoor activities and opportunities in the valley as well as it's beauty.

How did you get started with brewing beer?

My wife got her residency in Dallas, and we went to some amazing beer bars. I was trimming trees for a living and she got me an IPod for Christmas. I started listening to podcasts about brewing beer, Basic Brewing Radio, Brew Strong and now The Business of Craft Beer. Learning how to brew beer was exciting. Will, our brewer, and Brian, have so much experience and can tweak something here and there to make magic happen, it's just simple for them with all their experience. I am still just following recipes, not really formulating them.

What are your favorite types of beer and do you try and recreate them?

We drink all kinds of beer and we definitely started with the beers we love most, IPA's. We know we need to brew more styles and we really want to. We love so many different styles of beer but our fans are drinking so much of what we currently make it's hard to fit new batches into the brew schedule. We would lose taps with the other styles. We are excited for the future and being able to up our volume and brew other styles we love. We finally found some space with getting Zona out there but we haven't been able to keep up with the seasonals.

As far as what beers I would like to see in the future. I and most of us at the brewery really love barrel aging and sour beers. I think in the next five years you may see some substantial move toward those styles.

We have our own Oktoberfest at the brewery on Oct. 14 - it's a free event, we have music, and we have 6 different beers for the event, we'll have 10 total, those 6 will brewed just for the event, nobody has ever tasted them. We hope people will come out and enjoy them.

What has been your most memorable event as a brewery owner?

Getting out there and meeting people -fans of craft beer. My favorite event was BrewSkies - they don't do that anymore, but it was such a great event. It was just so beautiful, almost always great weather and the music was amazing, and it lasted for a couple days. It was quite the party. Tyler Childers played there last year and I've got a bit of a man crush on that guy. He used to work at the brewery and it just feels great to see how big he is getting. He's a real genuine guy who deserves all that comes his way. So yeah the festivals are great

What would you like to say to your (future) fans?

Drink more beer! Get out in nature with it, we like to take our stuff outside. It's one of the reasons we wanted to put it in a can.

Interview with Matt from Big Timber Brewing

Interview with Matt from Big Timber Brewing

How did you come up with your Brewery Name?

Combination of things! We wanted something related to our area, but not only inclusive to our area, my parents have been in the lumber industry for years, I had a dog named Timber, when I was thinking of names, I was in Montana, and there was a town named Big Timber.

How did you get started with brewing beer?

While I was living in Montana, it seemed like very little town had a brewery and a huge home brew culture. Missoula had three home brew shops. I joined a home brew club and got an apprenticeship at a job at Glacier Brewing Company in Poulson. The brewer worked with me and taught me all the facets of commercial brewing. Moved back to Elkins in 2012 to open my brewery and in 2014 we sold our first kegs - Blond Pale Ale and Porter. We opened our tap room in October that year. We have seasonal, one-offs, at any given moment we'll have anywhere from 7-8 beers on tap.

What are your favorite types of beer and do you try and recreate them?

I am a very seasonal drinker, sometimes in the summer feel like drinking porter and in the winter, I lean towards the hoppy beers. At any given month I have a new favorite beer of ours that I'm drinking.

What is your history with Oktoberfest events?

We did Bramwell a couple years, and we did the Elkins Forest Festival - biggest week-long festival in the state. It's great because it brings a lot of people into town, it's very busy that week. Bramwell was a great festival, and I heard that you guys picked up on that crowd. It was a great event for culture. We are really looking forward to Oktoberfest in Pipestem!

What has been your most memorable event as a brewer?

I really liked the Brew Skies festival, it is a shame that Mountain State isn't doing it anymore, it was more of a music festival.

Big bold, fruity IPA, clocks in at 8%, you have to be careful with it. Our regular IPA is kind of piney, we wanted to go with something completely different, and we wanted something fruity. Lot of mango, citrus, maybe stone fruit, tropical fruit.

Interview with Weathered Ground Brewery

Interview with Aryn Fonda - Weathered Ground Brewery

How did you come up with your Brewery Name?

We bought the property from a family that had been here for 100 years or so, when we walked the property, we noticed black walnut trees, pear trees, cherry trees, crab apples, concord grape vines, wild mint - it's really neat to see when it's all blooming. We've made beer from the grapes, we are about to do one with the black walnuts. It also used to be a goat farm, and there is quite a bit of hay that needs to be cut every year. They mentioned that they had weathered the ground over the years. We played around with it, and we decided that it was perfect for us, and our plans, we hope to continue "Weathering the Ground" for the next 50 or so years.

How did you get started with brewing beer?

We went to an antique store - just wandering around, and there was a home brew shop above it, we wandered in and my husband bought a home brew kit and started making beer at home. He got a job at The Olde Mecklenburg Brewery, bartending, delivering, and they gave him an opportunity to come on the team as an assistant brewer, where he learned to brew traditional German style beer. Sam then moved to Triple C Brewing Company, also located in Charlotte, and the brew a lot of different styles of beers. They did a weekly "pilot" batch every Wednesday so he got to hone in on the different styles he likes to brew.
I'm originally from Daniels, WV, so when we started a family, we decided to move back to this area and found the perfect location. We broke ground in the fall of 2016 and opened on August 6, 2017.

What are your favorite types of beer and do you try and recreate them?

I can drink a stout in the middle of the summer, any day. Sam is a big fan of farmhouse style beer, local ingredients, our, Gardening Angels is brewed with local honey, local jalapenos and wild ginger - Same likes to constantly challenge himself with new things. We have quite a bit of beer aging right now in wine and bourbon barrels. Our AJfest (spelling?) is a traditional Marzen style Oktoberfest beer.

What is your history with Oktoberfest events?

This will be our first Oktoberfest as a brewery, and we are super excited, especially since it's a local event, and we've been to Foam at the Dome in Charleston, WV and Hops on the Mon and Rails and Ales in Morgantown. We used to attend the Charlotte Oktoberfest with the other brewery - they pull in about 75 breweries and cideries (spelling?) from NC and SC, and some national ones as well.

What has been your most memorable event as a brewer?

I would have to say the most memorable moment I have had as a brewer is when we opened our doors at Weathered Ground Brewery on August 3rd for a soft opening with family and friends and it was the first time we got to see people truly experience "our" beer. The excitement on people's faces and the conversations we were able to have that night about our beer was pretty amazing. A close second to that moment is anytime I go into one of our accounts and get to try our beer outside the taproom. It is still pretty insane to order your own beer at another person's establishment.

What would you like to say to your (future) fans?

Come out and enjoy what we have up here. We have a lot of space, we are a community gathering spot, super family friendly, super dog friendly, we want to keep the ball rolling on exciting beers that people haven't tried before. Just constantly pushing the limits on local ingredients.